Dying Within
by GOWnerd
Summary: What happened to Barney? My take on this series of events. Please R&R! My first story, if it proves popular, will continue!
1. Chapter 1

**DYING WITHIN**

'Oh damn, oh damn, oh damn' thought Barney as he ran through the forest, avoiding that, thing. He slowed down, and scanned the surrounding area. It had gone.

"Whew, that was scary" he said aloud, slumping down on to a tree stump, breathing heavily. Just as he stood up and looked around, the Hunter jumped from the tree line and knocked him over.

"Goddamn!" he yelled, struggling, fruitlessly, to fend it off.

In a last ditch attempt the kill it, he pulled out a six shot revolver and fired a lump of lead right in between the beast's two eyes; it flopped over, lifeless.

It had started after they had taken the train from city 17. The shockwave from the citadel had thrown the train off the rails. He'd managed to find a few inches of railing and the revolver, then they'd been attacked by these 'hunters.' All of the other rebels had been killed trying to protect him.

He stood up, and, reluctantly, set off toward white forest.


	2. Chapter 2

THE DEAD TOWN

**After walking for a few hours, dodging various combine patrols Barney came across a small village.**

"**Yes!" he shouted, and sprinted toward the closest building. When he reached the entrance he saw a shape shuffling in the corner.**

"**Hey, you there!" he yelled "any chance of some weapons?"**

**Silence.**

'**Ok,' he thought 'that's odd.' Barney stepped forward and turned the turned on the light, he saw, several dead bodies stand up and walk toward him.**

"**Oh shit!" he yelled, running toward another building with a hoard of undead shuffling behind him.**

**He charged in, grabbed the railing from his belt, and smashed open a closet and, lo and behold, a shotgun sat there invitingly. He picked it up and strapped it to his back; he grabbed the railing and stepped outside. The ex-security guard spat on the ground and proceeded to clear each building. When the zombies had all been exterminated, he heard a Combine APC pull up and unloaded soldiers all over the place. When the soldiers had left the area Barney boarded the APC and 'removed' the driver from the situation. With great haste he pulled out, accelerated very fast and left the deadtown behind.**


	3. Chapter 3

Here he was, on the road again

**Here he was, on the road again. It was bumpy as hell but at least it beat walking with combine following you all the way.**

"**Oh bugger, not an inspection!" said Barney under his breath,**

**He pulled up and the window suddenly became clear. **

"**Could you check the oil?" Barney grinned at his first cool one-liner, and with that, he shot the elite in the face and put the pedal to the metal. The tunnel that followed the escape was pitch black, Though just as he burst through into the sunlight, he saw a skinned down Dodge Charger speed past him, containing a familiar looking orange blur, the APC rounded the corner at speed and, nothing, no sign of any form of modern technology whatsoever. He turned round and bolted down the road; there was lots of moaning, groaning and lurching.**

"**Well that explains the speed of that car" he thought aloud, he cruised at a reasonable speed, until he found a rebel outpost.**

**Calhoun stepped out the vehicle and banged on the door,**

"**Hey, you two, what gives?" he yelled, trying to get the attention of two rebels. They turned and ran to the door.**

"**Crikey, is it really you? Wow. Barney Calhoun" ****One of them**** said, excitedly.**

"**Yeah, yeah now lemme in!"**

"**Oh, yeah, sorry sir!"**

**Barney sat down and inquired about the day's events.**

"**What? Gordon Freeman was here?"**

"**Yeah, about 5 minutes ago"**

"**Damn…"**


	4. Chapter 4

'Gotta love the rebels' though Barney as he drove down the road with a pair of them in the troop compartment,

'**Gotta love the rebels' thought Barney as he drove down the road with a pair of them in the troop compartment,**

'**We've been going this for about 20 years and they still haven't given up. Amazing.' He pulled up at an old barn, that kind of thing was used by the rebellion. He pulled out a flashlight and shined it in, don't want any nasty surprises do we?**

**It was clear, okay… holding the shotgun and the flashlight he stepped forward, double-checking every crevice.**

"**All right it's clear you two, come in" he yelled to the rebels, when they entered, he kicked open a closet and-**

"**SHIT!" he screamed as a half-rotted combine fell on to him, making he recoil like a man from a cobra, when he regained his dignity he kicked it out the way and picked up it's AR2, he also found a few pistols, he threw them to the rebels and carried on the search the various nooks and crannies. He found an SMG and another shotgun; he passed the shogun to one of his squad. They turned and shuffled to the rotten door, aiming down the sights all the time. Barney heard a high whistling noise and looked up,**

"**HEAD HUMPERS!" he screamed at the top of his voice,**

"**MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" the rebels sprinted toward the APC, too late, the shells hit the floor, knocking over the rebels and sending them flying.**

"**GET UP!" he shouted, picking them up and running toward the vehicle, kicked open the door, threw them in and, wrenched the front door open, dived in still firing the SMG, pulled shut the door and drove like blazes.**

_Did you like this one? Probs the longest and most detailed chapter thus far :)_


	5. Chapter 5

"Goddamn, that was close

"**Goddamn, that was close." Said Barney to the rebels,**

"**Hey what are your names? I didn't ask before"**

"**Erm, I'm Keith and this is Alan," said Keith, dumbstruck that Barney Calhoun wanted to know their names.**

"**Alan and Keith huh, pretty bland names, you think?" Barney commented, and then he turned back to the road. They were driving through some radioactive water, if it could be called that; 'huh' thought barney 'toxic water and zombies.'**

**They got through the 'water' and, after a while they encountered a town, Barney slowed and stopped, stepping out of the APC and pulled out the shotgun, heading toward the inn, he wanted a drink. Big surprise, it was empty,**

"**Keith, Alan come in, it's clear!" he yelled to the door, he strode to the bar and pulled a pint,**

"**Urgh, that stuff is rank, don't even try it" Barney said to the pair of rebels,**

"**Lets move on, gotta be something in here," ordered Barney, pointing to the foyer, he walked in and immediately noticed the bloody dead hunter on the floor, he shouted loudly and jumped backward and stepped back in, looking down the sights of the shotgun, clear,**

"**Oh, thank god for tha-" there was a white flash and barney was gone, out through the window.**

**Barney woke up inside a silvery coloured building, kind of like the citadel, unfortunately this was lost on Calhoun, who was pretty much dead to the world.**

"**Uurgh, what happened then?" Murmured the security guard looking around, an electronic muffled voice said:**

"**Inside the nearest combine outpost, of course, although more specifically, inside a stalker pod."**

"**Huh? What? Ooh you're kidding me!" yelled Barney, getting panicky very quickly.**

"**Oh," said the voice maliciously "and you're very, very close to being turned into a stalker."**


	6. Chapter 6

Barney squirmed, trying to get out of the way of the needle that was coming, albeit slowly, toward his forehead

**Barney squirmed, trying to get out of the way of the needle that was coming, albeit slowly, toward his forehead. As the needle got closer the stalker pod got more and more claustrophobic, closing in and slowly squeezing his chest, suddenly it stopped, releasing him and throwing him out of the pod.**

"**Oh crap, power failure," said that voice from earlier, except without the malice this time. "You, stay-" before it could finish the camera deactivated and the door splintered, barney picked a large piece of metal and, grinning evilly set out to kick some ass…**

**There was next to no security in the outpost, its design was based on the enemy being outside rather than inside, sure there was the occasional patrol running around but other that that, the place was deserted. He spotted a patrol up ahead, heading toward him,**

"**Damn" he thought aloud, taking cover inside a crevice inside the wall, as the soldiers walked by he hit the last one on his head, knocking him out, Barney changed into the uniform and yelled, while pointing at the unconscious body:**

"**Sir, over here," this had the desired effect, they turned and jogged back toward him, the one who seemed to be the commanding officer nodded at him and said**

"**Good find frank, you'll get a promotion for this." And, with that they marched off, with two low ranking combine carrying the body. After a while they stopped,**

"**Frank and me will go and scout ahead, you lot stay here" said the CO casually motioning to Barney to follow,**

"**Ok, it's clear, I'll go get th-" barney shot the elite in the face with his sidearm, and ran like hell.**


	7. Chapter 7

Barney slowed to a jog, then to a walk

**Sorry about the wait, I hit a bit of a writers block.**

**Barney slowed to a jog, then to a walk. He stopped, panting and looking around for a way out. Nothing.**

"**Typical, nothing here." He noticed three poles, they seemed sturdy enough; Calhoun leant against one, and looked up, nothing around but bleak walls and stalker pods; Barney shuddered, it was chilling to think that he had come so close to becoming one of those shambling husks. Following the pod tracks with his eyes, he noticed a small beam of orange light flowing into the room, **

"**Nice!" he yelled aloud, looking around for a way up to the possibly out. The wall underneath it looked ok to climb; as Barney placed a foot on a small ledge there was a computerised shout from behind him;**

"**Hold it right there, Citizen!" said the voice; in a tone that suggested that there was no possible way that Barney would disobey. The citizen in question yelled an expletive and attempted to scramble up the wall, while AR2 bullets bouncing off the wall around his head, **

"**Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die I'm gonna die!" yelled Barney as a Combine energy ball hit the wall just above his head, he reached the top off the wall and pulled himself over the lip; as he turned to look out the window and saw a huge city sprawling in front of him.**

"**Oh crap" he whispered as he broke the window and jumped into the waiting city.**


End file.
